Six
by nihile
Summary: Shield Pokedex: The six of them work together as one Pokémon. Teamwork is also their battle strategy, and they constantly change their formation as they fight. There should not be a Seventh, not the one that came and took six in a magnetic ball.


There are six and no more.

There is always only ever six.

In six there are six: Sixth sees and Fifth hears and Fourth thinks and Third remembers and Second directs and First moves.

Six marches on flat ground today, and of six you are Fifth. You are Fifth, so there is Sixth behind you and nothing for you to watch. That is ideal. You are Fifth and Fifth hears and doesn't see. That is ideal. You were Sixth when you last saw this familiar flat ground. Your shields were behind you and the light was painfully bright and hot all over your exposed skin and you were seeing instead of hearing and that was when Seventh found six marching and Seventh took six in a magnetic ball.

There should not be a Seventh.

With Seventh you were Fifth and you heard chipping metal and breaking and screams of First. You were Sixth and you held your shields behind you and you saw chipping metal and breaking and screaming First. You were First when you didn't want to see or hear from behind your shields and instead you felt chipping metal and breaking and your own screams. Then Seventh took six where the ground was broken, stacked in spikes or cold and soft to sink in and the chipping metal and breaking and screams never stopped.

But today Seventh has decided to return to flat familiar ground, and here Sixth sees and tells, magnetic field clicking information to the rest of the six, of open space and propped up tents and a pot of boiling curry and you hear no chipping metal and breaking and screams. Third remembers and tells, propped up tents and boiling curry will not last long, but there is time for marching in the familiar flat ground.

You hear: scuttling legs. Sixth sees and tells of a chunk of flat dirt piled on a pincered thing waving at six. You hear and tell that the sound of the pincered thing is moving but the pitch is the same. Fourth thinks and tells that the pincered thing points towards six but doesn't pursue. Third remembers and tells that the pincered thing is hungry but not hungry enough to attack six unless approached. Second is told and Second turns, pointing First away from the scuttling legs, and one by one each of six turns and marches away from the pincered thing.

The familiar flat ground is pleasant. The existence of the pincered thing is not ideal, but here you hear healthy marching on pounded dirt. Sixth sees and tells of visible but faraway holes in the walls like dark eyes. Fourth thinks and tells of the holes that were just big enough for six to fit in, bored out with time and consistency. Third remembers and tells of before Seventh, of marching through holes and waiting in holes to avoid pincered things and beam-carrying things and Seventh things. You remember the darkness of the holes where when you were Sixth at least it did not hurt to see.

You hear Seventh struggling with curry, a noise behind you. Fourth thinks, and tells that Seventh is distracted. Sixth sees and tells that there is a dark hole on the ground a run ahead. Fourth thinks and tells that the hole is dark because of a sharp turn, that when entered would block both Seventh's chase and a magnetic ball's light. Third tells that Seventh isn't noticing now but will notice if six runs, and tells it will be chipping metal and breaking and screams again. Second wavers, unsure, and First stands in place, undirected.

Fourth moves out of place, and Sixth follows, then you, then Second, First, and reluctantly Third. The formation shuffles, Fourth and Third refusing to move like the conflict they are, and six reassembles in front of them, and you are Second.

Second is a rare position for you, where you listen to six instead of what's around you. The new Sixth sees and tells that Seventh is close, just a turn and a beam to return six to the ball, while the new Fifth tells about how Seventh is making noise, so much noise that Seventh wouldn't be able to hear six running. The new Fourth is silent while the new First itches in front of you, pulsing to move and ready for you to direct. And the new Third is broken, telling memories of marching free always and no more screaming and no more breaking regardless of what the new Fifth and Sixth tell. This cannot do.

You move out of place, but the last thing you heard sticks in your mind, stirring curry. As the rest of six breaks out of place again, you know what you must do. Again, Fifth and Sixth refuse to move, and become Fourth and Fifth as the others reassemble in front of them, and you take the new Sixth.

You pry your shields back and quickly tell what you see, too bright, Seventh leaning over a pot and stirring violently, leaning so much that it stands on the shaking ends of its feet. Fifth hears and tells the stirring isn't loud enough to hide six running. Fourth thinks and tells that, again, Seventh is distracted, more than ever. You tell that Seventh is leaning on the ends of its feet, trembling so much you can see from here. You tell that Seventh stares at the pot and curry spits at its face. You look until your eyes burn, until you must let your shields fall back over your eyes and let six be blind.

Fourth tells that Seventh is so focused it doesn't hear. But you hear Third, remembering and telling that Seventh is like the statue six once saw, with digletts underfoot, prying, ready to tip if only...

And Second turns One all the way around, and one by one, each of six turns and marches towards Seventh. It doesn't hear: there isn't long to march. You start to tell of what you see, Seventh's thin heel, but Second isn't unsure and doesn't need it, and First keeps barreling forward until the force of impact against Seventh's heel passes from First to Second to Third to Fourth to Fifth to you.

Fifth tells of hearing sizzling, the sound of hot curry sloshing, and Seventh's boiling screams.

Second directs again, turning First away, pointing to the hole that would block a magnetic ball's light, that was too long of a distance to run before. But Fourth tells of time now, of Seventh distracted in agony instead of taking the magnetic ball. Six runs, and Third tells of no more chipping metal and breaking and screams. You take one last look as the hole closes you and tell, there will always only be six.


End file.
